Manuski means humanism in Marathi. A term used by Dr B.R.Ambedkar, a great humanist of India. This blog want stimulating debate without any prejudices of caste, religion and nationalism. It is about humanism and human rights. All freethinkers are welcome to contribute and participate in stimulating debates.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Towards the dictatorship of 'Aam Admi'...

By
Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Delhi
has never made many of us proud as yesterday when the results of the local
polls gave an entire country and its already frightened people a new hope in
the strength of democracy whatsoever bad it might be, that at the end of the
day it is people who matter and that the most fascist and dictatorial persons
too should be afraid of people and keep their cool even at the time of such
occasions. I am not to here to describe this victory of Arvind Kejriwal the
eighth wonder of the world but definitely one ca not take away the credit of
committed volunteers of AAP and their strategy which worked in Delhi. These
elections have given hope to people that if their work on their strategy well
people will vote for them. It has given Kejriwal and his team a message that he
should work as any further nautanki on his part will create survival problem
for the party in future. As far as ‘national’ perspective is concern, we must
not come to any conclusion that fast about AAP as an ‘alternative’ to BJP or
representing ‘secular’ forces. The results in Delhi only clarify that each
state want a dominant leader and elections and democracy is not just ‘power’ to
‘people’, it has different meaning to different communities.

Why
is Delhi election so important when it has merely 70 seats? Why Congress got
decimated in Delhi and how long will the party’s failure continue? Will AAP
replace Congress as a political force in India? These are futile questions for
many armchair authors who are fascinated by tricolor wielding ‘Aam Adami’ in
the Delhi streets for the past three year. Will Delhi see a new kind of government?
Is Aap really an ‘innovative’ and new ‘left’ outfit which is ‘inclusive? It is
time for serious introspection of the situation.

As I
mentioned earlier, I am not fascinated by those who call it a ‘revolution’ and
the fact is most of the ‘political’ ‘changes’ by street smart ‘rebels’ is
nothing but pure dictatorial in nature and dominance of the powerful communities.
Democracy may be a call for the people, of the people and by the people but it
is in fact power of the powerful in India. It is oversimplification of dirty
facts that with the ‘advent’ of AAP the ‘caste’ politics will be eliminated and
a ‘class’ war has started. Absolutely farcical and out of touch ‘experts’ can
attribute such thoughts. When and where was AAP ‘left’? What is the aam admi of
AAP? Can the interest of the cash rich marwaris-Banias of whose community
Arvind Kejriwal ‘proudly’ belong to, be the same, as of the migrants Dalits
from Bihar and Uttar Prades ? Will the Sangh inspired ‘Aam Admi’ leave his
caste prejudices and become more inclusive? Is it not a fact that Aap was not
‘fighting’ with Modi but with ‘corruption’ as Kumar Vishwas, whose family lineage
goes back to RSS, continued to harp after the victory of AAP? What is the
profile of AAP leaders? They do not suffer from day to day survival stints as
one of their spouses work or many of them have earn enough money to survive a
decent life.

We
celebrate their victory because it crushed Modi and his loudspeakers. Most of
India celebrated it that way only yet there are powerful message hidden behind
this victory. Politics is learning process and perhaps Arvind Kejriwal became
much more sober and sensible after becoming a politician. The people in the
slums and resettlement colonies realized that he can ‘deliver’ them. These days
elections are not just ideological driven but more as developing ‘perception’
and management. AAP’s theatrics can match the RSS propaganda machinery. The
reason is clear as most of the AAP volunteers have family background of RSS and
BJP and hence they know how to counter the propaganda. Secondly, in the caste
war, BJP lost the Bania votes once Harsh Vardhan was clean bowled by the party.
Kejriwal has been highly supported by Delhi’s traders and not just Delhi but
Haryana, Punjab and even UP traders have found a new ‘icon’ in Kejriwal at the
moment. So, the Banais who did not have much political clout aspired that and
got it. For years, they have been the backbone of BJP, supporting it
wholeheartedly but got nothing in return in terms of leadership. Kejriwal
filled that vacuum and it was not without any reason that Kejriwal spoke about
BJP ‘insulting’ his ‘community’. But just because trading community supported
Kejriwal could not have turned him into such a big victory in Delhi. The real
force behind AAP Tsunami in Delhi is the open and unambiguous support of
Dalits, Muslims and the poor of Delhi. The question is why should poor of Delhi
vote for him ? It is a massive mandate as the party got more than 54% of total
votes while the main opposition party BJP got 32%. Congress had nearly 25% vote
share last time was totally decimated and became irrelevant with merely 10% votes
this time. Congress’s vote of Dalit-Muslims-Poor actually made AAP’s victory
important. Will AAP leadership realize it? Will they realize how much the
people particularly the Dalit Muslims have trusted them? Why have the Dalit
Muslims voted in such a large number to AAP. Is it just ‘Bijali-sadak-pani’ or
their support is for the larger cause.

I
would like to give one small example of Sohrab, my friend and cab driver who
takes me to most of the places when I go out. And from the very beginning he
was talking of AAP. With the advent of aggressive Hindutva fanatics, Muslims
felt scary and he would talk to me about AAP. Yesterday, he called me and said
they are celebrating AAP victory in their locality. We did see BJP during
Vajpayee regime but despite differences of opinion everybody knew he was a man
anybody could meet and a man of great humor and wit. Today, the whole
government seems to be working on a vengeance towards political opponents.
Minorities are feeling scary and disturbed. The Dalits who voted to AAP
actually were disturbed with regular threat to Constitution and obviously the
persistent anti poor stand of the government such as ordinances land
acquisition and attempt to throttle anti poverty programmes. The friendship of
the current regime with some of the ‘big’ and ‘notorious’ ‘capitalists’ is wellknown
to be described here.

The
regular attacks on Churches on the eve of elections and attempt to communalise
Delhi through ‘Trilokpuri’ ‘experiment’ boomeranged on Amit Shah and company
who felt that they can redo a ‘Mujjaffarnagar’ in Delhi and reap the rich
harvest later during the elections. The
aggressive campaign, in which BJP spend huge sum violated all forms of decency
and poll norms created a contrary impression. The Election Commission sadly
remained mute and helpless on all these issues despite media attention. There
was fear in the air and the Sangh Parivar and BJP felt that they would bully
people further into their way. The regular threat to people was a challenge to
the privacy of the individual which people responded in a fitting way. BJP
would never have thought the response would have been like this but the fact is
that people of Delhi have rejected their polarization bid.

It
does not mean that the upper castes have left their caste identities. It does
not mean that likes of Kumar Vishwas have a change of heart. Neither it mean
that Banais of Sadar would pay handsome salaries to all the migrant workers
coming to Delhi. Nor does it means that Chhotoos and Chhottis working in the houses
of these caste Hindus will get a fair deal. Will Arvind Kejriwal and his team
make some stronger ‘domestic wage’ act for ‘workers’ mainly trafficked from
Chhattishgarh and Jharkhand?Yet, all of
the slum dwellers and Jhuggi Jhopad wallahs, resettlement colonies have
different issues related to their daily lives and they need to be addressed.

AAP
has promised moon. It has promised thousands of CCTV cameras as well as women
force, commandos to ‘handle’ crime against women. It is where we see the hypocrisy
of the party and its leaders. Can crime against women be reduced by such
nonsensical ways? AAP has no economic alternative except that they got promoted
in the same corrupt corporate system, which they are opposing. The media
projected them as alternative and only when the Ambanis were challenged made
the things difficult for them in the media. It is the same media who glorified
them converted them into villain and now after their victory making them
‘revolutionary’. It is an opportunist media and AAP is well aware of it that if
it did not have an upper caste middle class character none would have ever
cared for this party. So upper caste urbanized middle class is the USP of AAP
hence it is really not an Aam Adami, which actually AAP represent, but Khas crorpatis.
Of course, some of the Dalits and Muslims got tickets in it and have
representation in the party. However, the challenge lies ahead in fulfilling
the promises and addressing the greater concern of the Dalits, Muslims and
other poor. The question of representation will be important in future.
Secondly, every state is looking for a dominant and powerful chief minister.
Thirdly, most of the Kejriwal’s original supporters are same who talked ‘ooper
Modi, Neeche Kejriwal’. In longer term such stretagy will not work as neither
the caste equations are same in all the regions nor we have one leaders
everywhere. Hence like Mayawati, who could not create a BSP beyond UP because
of dearth of leaders, Kejriwal will find it equally difficult to have the leaders
elsewhere.

AAP
put its spokesperson on TV debate very strategically. In major debates we saw
Muslim spokes person on TV screens who were well articulate in both Hindi and
English language as well as looked absolutely traditional in their outlook. So
they reached their target audience very well. It is clear that Muslims who
could have got confused in voting this time was unambiguous from the very
beginning. If we compare it with the results last time, it is Congress Party,
which got its seats from Muslim majority localities. It clearly reflects how
this election was taken as a big challenge for Muslims and they voted in large
number and to AAP.

Will
AAP to justice to the great faith posed by Muslims and Dalits in it. The coming
days will show it. AAP will have to reflect on major policy decisions. It will
have to speak on representation, on the issue of reservation, common civil
code, violence against Dalits, issues of farmers, OBCs and so on.

The
decimation of Congress is not the end of the party as many suggest. The fact is
that elections are being fought on perceptions. Kejriwal build a perception
against Congress along with Anna on corruption issues converting the entire
organization totally corrupt. The entire anti corruption movement was communal with
anti dalit anti Muslim tendencies though political formation might have changed
Kejriwal a bit but his core constituency and support base comes from powerful
upper castes who have got disgruntled with BJP for not being able to address
their issues. The fact is that Kejriwal’s Jan Lokpal is nothing but an
invitation to chaos over political leadership. Hope Kejriwal will work and act
on the issues which are not that easy to solve. Will he take a position against
Khap Panchayats as he spoke against BJP for trying to intimidate women and
spoke candidly that he want girls to enjoy their freedom. So, perception
against Congress Party will change once Kejriwal fail to deliver and come back
to his agitational politics. With Modi failing at central level and Kejriwal in
Delhi will only give people option to revert back to Congress. In fact,
Congress should not have fielded candidate in Delhi elections this time given
the huge perceptional issues this time and this could have given them much
greater respite than current situation where the party scored a zero.

Rahul
Gandhi should continue to focus on young energetic people from diverse
communities and try to ensure that Congress does not have dilly dallying
approach on important issues. Congress’s Narsimharao approach of ‘no governance
is the best governance’ on major policy issues actually was responsible for
development of perception regarding the party in recent years. The party did
not do anything to these perceptions. It did not fight offensively when Nehru
was being maligned by the Sangh Parivar trolls on the web space and questions
were being raised about Indira Gandhi. The party need to have a cohesive voice
and must look honest in its approach. Even when Sonia Gandhi got Forest Rights
Act, Right to Food and Land Bill, the perception did not change. The poor were
not very happy. The farmers voted against it because P Chidambaram and Montek
Singh Ahaluwalia were never considered as pro people. So the socialist approach
of Sonia and Rahul was mocked and failed by those in power and the party
actually is still paying a price for bad governance or no governance.

Next
one year will be important for the country. AAP’s victory shows that the
saffron chariot can be stopped and that people are fed up with it but at the
same point of time AAP is not the answer as most of its class caste character
except for a few actually come from the Sangh thought. Secondly, no single
party can rule India and therefore parties will have to develop way to work in
mutual interest with common understanding and political ideologies. If Kejriwal
says he does not have any ideology then he is lying actually. Can any one say
Modi government is not working from an ideological perspective ? It is and
signs are clear. Therefore, the Delhi election is a signal that if parties have
good management and counter Sangh Parivar on the same wicket with good,
committed idealistic volunteers, the things will move. AAP had definitely the
louder volunteers even when ideologically they are B copies of Sangh Parivar
yet their commitment to their leaders brought the things to this level.

Finally,
the election results have thrown a big challenge to ‘democracy’ itself. Are we
electing ‘larger’ than life leaders who have no faith in ‘democracy’ ? There
was a time when political leaders understood the importance of opposition and
it was mutual understanding not to field candidates against good leaders.
Today, things are changed and we want to ‘liquidate’ the opponents then and
there. It is sad that political discourse has turned to such a level. Is it not
a threat when we don’t have an opposition in Parliament and the assemblies?
Should the opposition come from the ‘street’ now? Do the people want to see
chaos in the street ? Role of opposition leaders are important in shaping our
policies and hence it saddened me to say that Ajay Maken got defeated
humiliatingly despite the known fact that he could have been a better chief
minister than the other too. But it is the same Delhi and its ‘elite’ and
‘educated’ class which defeated Dr Man Mohan Singh and gave it to one
nondescript Vijay Kumar Malhotra.

Lawmakers
will have to think how can a party with 54% of votes get 95% of seats? Is it
not highly disproportionate of their vote percentage? BJP with 32% of votes
could manage with 5% while Congress with 9% vote did not get anything. India will pay a heavy price with this when
elections are becoming joke and high ‘personalised’ and personality based and
those who have capacity to pay will be able to manage otherwise ordinary
activists and workers have no place in such a ‘democracy’. We must shift to
Proportionate Electorate System so that diverse groups have representation in
our Parliament and Assemblies and we will be saved from such a situation when a
‘democratic’ mandate does not become threat to ‘democracy’ itself. Kejriwal’s
victory is no different than Modi which decimated the opposition and it is here
that I am signing out this note with a red alert that India will ultimately go
to dictators who have no respect for democracy if people continue to give
mandate in such a way as if they don’t want to see any opposition.And how will ‘Aam Admi’ tackle those who will
take to street for its ‘failure’ to address the situation ? Will it send their
‘jathas’ to ‘deal’ with their ‘political’ ‘opponents’ ? Delhi will have to
patiently wait for the coming days which may bring torturous ‘Aam Admi’
dictatorship in the street. At the moment, we can only wish good to Arvind
Kejriwal and his team for five year and hope they will be able to fulfill their
promises.

Followers

About Me

Learning through working. Working at the grassroots made me realise the big difference between those who claim to represent communities as well as the communities themselves. Common man is crushed between the ambitions of various individuals to lead and dominate. The dominant and high numbered communities will always dominate our discourse and the most marginalised are losing in this entire discourse. That is the reason why Mushahar remain at the marginalised and the issue of manual scavenging still not on our top agenda and to eliminate that the community has to decide its own organisations..

I am devoted to freedom of ideas and expression. I personally feel that we in the subcontinent want to dominate and control our discourse and each one of is a ultra nationalist in terms of their caste and community. Nationalism is not just national and political but it is equally in term of religion and caste. I feel each kind of nationalism is a dominant discourse which deny the dissenter a right to speak.

At the end, we all want to listen the truth suitable to us.. we have become expertised in the art of speaking truth of convenience. As long as that remain hall mark of our society and we speak to already converts, this society will remain stagnant, it will always try to control our ideas and choices. We need to oppose any such perception, ideas that want to control our mind and victimise us.

To understand India further, I feel, it is good to do foot walk, ( Padyatras) to various parts of the country. I have so far done it thrice covering nearly 1500-2000 kilometers. It is always interesting to see how people are coping their issues and what is the reason of their exploitation.